


Desolation of the Centuried Giant Land-Squid

by Karin Yukimura (Karinpon)



Category: Nyanworld, Original Work
Genre: Anal, Anal Sex, Cat Ears, Catboys & Catgirls, Cheese, Everyone Is Gay, Fantasy, Gay, Gay Sex, Intercrural Sex, Latex, M/M, Male Homosexuality, Oral Sex, Original Character Death(s), POV Third Person Omniscient, Penises, Sea Monsters, Thighs, Yaoi, amphibious squid monster, everyone is male, poor revision, seafood
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-02
Updated: 2015-05-02
Packaged: 2018-03-28 17:37:51
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,975
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3863470
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Karinpon/pseuds/Karin%20Yukimura





	Desolation of the Centuried Giant Land-Squid

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Sexsuna (Junna)](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Sexsuna+%28Junna%29).



Chapter I

It was approaching midday in the warm season, and both of them had marked this day as a Leisure Day, so they sat in a sizeable row boat just off the coast of Kokkori while everyone else worked. Though this was a fishing village, the fishermen had long ago deemed this spot unproductive. They were alone together, two lovers.

Yuuka, whose ears and tail were pale blue, hair black and lank and very long as it gathered in a heap on the floor of the boat under his chin, sniffed under Kayane’s skirt. “Mmm, you smell good. Been a while without a wash?”

“Four days,” Kayane said. “Stop teasing me with your nose...”

Yuuka picked up his head, bringing his gaze level with his sex-partner’s. Kayane’s hair was bright yellow and tied up in one bunch in the shadow of each of his big orange ears, a blunt fringe overhanging his violet eyes. The sea hissed quietly around them, framing his beauty in Yuuka’s vision. He wished he were an image-maker, that he could immortalise and reproduce this scene in the minds of others the world over.

Beauty had to be shared, after all, or it was delusion, or not much better than. Such were Yuuka’s thoughts; he had the mind of an image-maker, though all he did for a living was harvest latex. Even for that job he had to commute some distance from the ancient, half-forgot fishing village where he dwelt.

The village had brought the two of them together though, and its coast set this perfect backdrop for lovers. It wasn’t all dejecting. Yuuka reached his hand beneath the skirt instead—the pleated skirt of Kayane’s red latex dress, which was held on him by straps over the shoulders, making it close to as suited for warm weather as latex clothing could get.

For his part, Yuuka wore a dull oilskin vest and ripped old work skirt. Both Nyanma had feet shod in grey latex boots, for the coast was fairly sodden—the village lying in the Great Southern Swamp region of Nyanmar, incorporation pending. The cities seemed content to let it be so long as it maintained its industrial-scale exports of fish.

The water began to eddy around them. It ruined Yuuka’s placid picture, wherefore he sought to hurry along to the unbeautiful fun of their Leisure Day. He stroked Kayane’s impressive cock as it grew rigid in his hand, and leaned in for a kiss. Their tongues passed each to the other’s mouth; Yuuka bit Kayane’s lip, making him moan gently and twitch in his hand. Yuuka’s own organ could hardly be contained by his skirt in its present state.

“Spread your thighs more and lean back,” Yuuka said. “I want you in my mouth.”

Kayane did as told without question, only adding: “You’d better not bite me.”

“I won’t! It’ll be pure pleasure, I promise. You’ve done this for me before, and I haven’t had a chance to return the favour till now.” Gripping the shaft, Yuuka lowered his face, met the tip with his tongue. Kayane flinched slightly, then relaxed, placed his palm on the cushion of hair near Yuuka’s crown.

Yuuka’s tongue traced the head of Kayane’s organ in circles, slipping under the foreskin, pushing out the sweet filth while his hand caressed the shaft, sliding to and fro its loose skin. Shuddering, Kayane stroked his head, his neck. Now his lips engulfed Kayane’s length half to its base, and his fingers found the soft purse carrying Kayane’s little nuts—rather out of proportion with the rest of his sex.

“Ah,” Kayane moaned, “how’d you get so good at this... have you been messing around with others?”

Yuuka drew his head back suddenly, letting the organ slip out of his mouth. “No! Kayane is the only one for me.”

“I want to believe you...” He looked down at his glistening horn. It twitched expectantly.

“I’ll prove it,” Yuuka said. He felt silly, going through these motions as if it weren’t obvious what Kayane wanted. He’d asked for it with even less subtlety before. The boat swayed a little in the rising eddies, but the scene was still overall like a pleasant dream, as though only the two of them existed in the world; there’d never be a better time for it. Yuuka turned on his hands and knees, lifting his tail toward the sky which shared its colour, presenting his rear. “Stick me.”

“Finally you’ll let me! I knew the time was right.” Sidling over on his knees, Kayane grasped Yuuka’s hip with one hand, his tail with the other. The soft head kissed, squished against Yuuka’s sphincter, exciting him, preparing him for anything, even the slow, painful entrance of the great thick stave behind it.

Gasping, Yuuka stroked his own to ease the pain, which was already slightly mitigated by half the length being coated in his saliva. Before long Kayane had entered him beyond that half, but the pain only lessened. He ejaculated in his hand when he felt Kayane’s purse on his perineum. He was all the way in, and began to move back.

Though Yuuka made no effort, he held onto Kayane tightly as he pulled out. Kayane was the only one to cry then, just before pushing back in, touching Yuuka’s depths again. It stung; he seemed to shit out Kayane’s terrific cock, then suck it back in with his arse, but each pass made him shudder with delight. He enjoyed not just the queer stimulation and feeling of being filled with his lover, but also the pleasure his lover gave voice to with every other thrust.

And despite all discomfort, despite himself, Yuuka believed there could be nothing more beautiful than what happened presently. But beauty was fleeting; even an image could not outlast its canvas. The boat swayed perilously, and Yuuka felt sure it had naught to do with their movements. “Something’s wrong,” he said between panting breaths. “With the water... let’s go to shore... continue in the forest...”

“Hah—I’m almost spent. Must we?”

“Don’t you see... the water? How the boat... it’s going to throw us.”

“You’re right. Nature wants to interfere with us... and you said—”

Something, a lichen-strewn mound, rose out of the water, and their boat threw them in before they could begin to class the disturbance.

Yuuka reached out, half blinded by small waves. “Kayane!”

They’d got separated, making his outreach in vain. A moment later he heard an inarticulate cry—Kayane’s voice—and looked up whence it’d seemed to come. Up in the shadow of the mound.

It had stretched toward the sky, revealing beneath it two huge saucer-like eyes, and a beak which tore at the flesh of Kayane’s thigh as it held him, a morsel, in strong, sucker-lined arms to feast. He grasped ineffectually at the monster’s arm which enwrapped his chest, and kicked the air with his one free leg.

“Help—Yuuka!!”

He faced the beast as it ate him—he could not see Yuuka. It was a perverse kind of relief for Yuuka, not to see his lover’s pleading eyes as he cried out for him. Yuuka knew, there was nothing he could do.

“Yuuka!...”

The oar... that was nowhere to be found. Yuuka couldn’t face such a thing with his bare hands. He had to get out of the water, call for help. But if he left, would there be anything left of Kayane but a skeleton for him to return to? No—of this in his paralysis was he sure. There was nothing he could have done, nothing he could do but stare.

“Yuu...”

The blood escaped Kayane’s body quickly as the squid-devil picked off his flesh here and there, turning him over in its arms as it did. He could not save him—he had to save himself.

On that thought, Kayane’s head lolled back, returning his gaze with eyes bright and luxuriant even in death.

Yuuka screamed.

The beast lowered Kayane’s corpse, scanning the shoreline with its huge eyes. Yuuka gasped deeply, and dove, swam toward the shore.

He wasn’t a fool for love. He wouldn’t offer himself up to the taker of Kayane’s life. But he would return, with help, some means to slay the beast, to prevent it ever taking anyone else.

That was what he told himself. And he swore to it, even when he came up on the marshy beach and saw not one person around, none to have shared in witness to the terrible beast even at a great distance. How could the villagers think he imagined it? Kayane...

 

#

 

Running, sometimes walking, north along the coast, he began to see fishing boats and fishermen. He hailed a swarthy group dressed similarly to himself, most fishing just off the coast, two loading fish onto a cart. Those two answered him as he approached.

“Did something happen?” enquired one, with greasy black ears and a head of brown hair.

“Yes,” said Yuuka. “Giant squid monster... killed my lover...” He had to catch his breath. “In the barren zone.”

Recognition made itself apparent on the face of the one to whom he spoke, though the one behind him shook his head and went on with work. He who listened said, “That’s a myth. Giant squid monster... but if someone died, you have to inform the elders, recover the body and decide what to do with it. I’m sorry, I need to get back to work.”

And so he did.

Expecting nothing better of the other fishermen, Yuuka trekked inland, toward the village centre, passing the little hovels. When a nyanma died in the village, it was customary for his loved ones to consume him, but Yuuka knew there would be nothing left of Kayane to eat—no solace but in his predator’s death. Maybe that thing would taste good. But now all he could do was go to the elders, tell them what he saw, and hope to arrange a hunting party.

The Elders’ Hall came within sight. Its two-storey, three-winged concrete structure sat just beyond the domestic market, which happened to comprise street vendors selling mostly fish-bait—edible enough, for some of it was also fish—and in one bin Yuuka espied squids, which made him reel. He shut his eyes and continued on. Naturally, he bumped into someone on the way.

“Sleep-walking?”

He opened his eyes. The one he’d collided with held his shoulders, and stood a head taller than him, with long, pretty hair the colour of Kayane’s eyes. “N-no... sorry. I’ve got to warn the elders about a dangerous creature that has risen in the barren zone.”

A deeper recognition, even terror, was in this nyanma’s mien. “What did you say? Please, repeat, slowly. What has risen in the barren zone?”

“It’s like a squid... huge... Kayane and I were having our Leisure Day on a boat in the barren zone, and it came out of the water, and ate him. I couldn’t do anything...”

“So it has come again. I’m sorry for your loss, but this is an urgent matter. I am one of the elders. We will go to the others together.”

Yuuka felt suddenly giddy. An elder wanted to help him! “Yes... but how do you know about it?”

“Come, you’ll find out all I know when we make our case in the hall.”

So they entered the Elders’ Hall. The green-haired stranger, now that Yuuka thought about it as he walked alongside him, did don uncommon attire: a blue latex maillot, cut with intricate designs which bared his sweaty brownish skin; high, black boots, laced; and a similar sort of gloves. The extravagant attire, combined with his height, would have indicated an Elder to Yuuka had he been in a normal state of mind.

The six tallest villagers, regardless of age, were deemed Elders, and made to decide the fate of the village together at parliaments in the imposing Hall. It was an ancient way, which the cities had long ago moved on from due to its obvious problems. But there was no arguing against the tallest often being the handsomest.

Kayane’s height had fallen between Yuuka’s and this Elder’s.

“Listen.” He pulled Yuuka’s attention to his surroundings. Yuuka had been following blindly along in the hall, lost in his stupid thoughts, but now he saw they stood before a heavy pair of doors. The Elder continued, “The Daily Parliament is being held beyond these doors. I’d gone to the market while the others had either failed to attend or fallen asleep. When I left, one slept, and two others could be heard having sex somewhere in the building, which has ample facilities for such recreations. Know you, friend: we Elders have no real business with the power we hold over this village, outside of corruption. I don’t expect much, and neither should you.”

“I expected... something foolish?”

The green-haired Elder smiled. “I will help you, even if the others don’t.” He threw open the doors.

The room for Parliament held an oblong table with three large, leather-upholstered chairs on either of the long sides, one of which was occupied by a nyanma who breathed slowly—clearly the sleeper. Various cold foods could be seen on the table, and arras adorned the walls.

The green-haired Elder went to the table, Yuuka following him slowly. He did not take a seat, but merely rapped hard and fast on the table.

The sleeper stirred. Someone could be heard stepping toward one of the doors to the chamber opposite the one whence Yuuka had been led.

“There is an urgent matter to discuss!” The green-haired Elder slammed his palm on the table. The chubby, short-haired sleeper woke.

“W-what is it... Setsu? Where are the other elders? Why aren’t you in your seat?”

Suddenly the door opened, and in came two more—long-haired nyanma with colourful coiffures, one orange and one violet, their ears grey and red respectively. They panted, smelled of recent spendings, and each planted his bottom in a chair. “Please,” violet-hair said, “sit, if you want to discuss something. And who is this?”

Setsu sat in a chair promptly. “This is... I don’t know his name, but he comes to warn of a threat to Kokkori. The Great Crawler has risen again from the barren zone, killed someone, and is probably picking off the fishermen as we speak. We need arm a militia and march on it lest it destroy our houses and feast on us.”

The other laughed. “No... no jesting at Parliament!”

“Everything he says is true!” Yuuka interposed uselessly.

“The Great Crawler is a myth, even some of the fishermen know that. This little one is tricking you, Setsu.”

“I know he is not,” Setsu said. “One hundred years ago, almost to this day, the beast rose from the same spot, and killed my parents as I looked on from the beach; then it moved from water to land, crushing fishermen’s houses and eating their families. Some of the fishermen still remember, and at the time, some still remembered a prior incident a hundred years before that, when it killed a few of them and headed then straight for the village.

“The houses were made of sticks and leaves then, I hear; and many died. Many more have forgot, or weren’t there. But you see, it’s a cycle—it’s time to feed, and we’re all in danger unless we organise to kill the beast, or at least defend against it!”

For a moment all were dumbfounded. Now Yuuka knew why this particular elder wanted to help him, but what of the others? They seemed entirely incredulous.

“I have heard the myths,” violet-hair said, “but they’re hardly corroborated by repetition and your eyewitness testimony. Maybe it was a normal squid that killed your parents, and the stuff about it going on land and destroying buildings was all made up or imagined? Memory is a tricky thing...”

“It is,” Setsu said. “One forgets details of traumatic events, but not so easily the events themselves. It must have been easy for many of the older villagers, distant enough from the beast to have kept their lives, to forget. But not for me, and not for this fellow. And you... you haven’t even lived here long, neither you nor your very tall lover who sits with us. If you had, you’d believe me before it was too late to prevent a catastrophe.”

“What about me?” the chubby one said. “I was born here, and I never heard about it.” He bit off a piece of cold poultry he held in his hand.

“Oh, I thought you had gone back to sleep. No, I don’t think you would have heard about it, even had it squatted right atop the roof of your house. But that is a joke, and now’s no time for them.” Setsu stood. “If the Elders will not take action, organising a militia, this fellow and I will hunt it by ourselves, though I fear by this time we’ll not have far to find it. If any of you wishes to join us, please stand.”

“Hmph!” Violet-hair stood. “I’ll go with you! I’ll go to see this Great Crawler and kill it, if it exists. If not, mayhap the case can be made for a vote on whether you should remain an Elder.”

“Mayhap. So come, Rana, to the armoury.”

 

#

 

Rana had led them into the basement of the Elders’ Hall. There, Setsu took a handle fixed to the wall, and pulled aside the fake brick wall. Behind it was a small space filled with weapon racks, on the walls and on the floor. All these weapons were strange to Yuuka—not one was nearly so small as a knife, the closest thing wherewith he had prior acquaintance.

Setsu took the sole crossbow from off a high rack. It was heavy, but it was best. “You don’t want to get close to the beast. I advise bows and spears—long spears.”

“Me too?” Yuuka said, puzzled as Rana took a bow and quiver.

“We’ll need all the hands we can put against it.”

“I don’t have any training with these things... but if I’m armed, it won’t be so foolish to try to avenge Kayane with your help.” He started to pull a spear out a floor rack, a long spear; but finding it too heavy, and too long for his stature, he put it back, and got the next-longest. It was quite a difference.

“Kayane?” Rana enquired.

“My lover—it took him from me.”

“Ah, let’s recover his body then.” Rana knew he sounded cold, uncaring, but it bothered him little. The lover, he thought, had probably died in an accident. Such deaths were a little more common than fatal animal attacks, and far more common than attacks by mythical beasts. His remark met with only a hurried silence.

It was not until they’d exited the building that Rana opened his mouth again. “Do not try to get the villagers involved in our little expedition. Our rule here tries the state’s patience enough without us panicking the populace and disrupting supply lines.”

“So,” said Setsu, “I guess it is just us, if we can stop it on its way here. And news of it.”

Already villagers were gathering round something—a small group of fishermen who had fled, they soon saw, right into the market. They gathered, too.

“It had eyes like dinner plates!” one terrified nyanma was saying. “And it followed us who weren’t caught up by it to our houses, so we came here where it’s safest. Do you think it’ll come this far? Somebody tell the elders!”

“The elders have been informed,” Setsu said. Then, more quietly, to Rana: “You still doubt it? Let’s hope it didn’t follow these men here...”

“Let’s... kill it. It can’t be that big, really, can it?”

Yuuka remembered well. “It is that big.”

“And it can move on land,” Setsu added. “Follow me, pay careful attention. Mind you that we aren’t running when we see it! This is a hunt for that so-called mythical beast which has killed many of our kind.”

They parted from the crowd, Rana trailing behind, and made for the edge of the village, toward the coast. Yuuka’s grip tightened on the shaft of his spear. He could guess well enough how to wield it, how to drive it into the flesh of the beast at the nearest opportunity. He only hoped fear would not take over when he saw it again.

It wasn’t long before they heard an enormous bulk pushing over trees in the forest.

“No... it’s closer than I thought it would be.” Setsu looked back at his companions. “It would trap us in the forest. We have to fight it here, when it comes out. Be ready with your bow, Rana. And you...”

“My name is Yuuka,” he said at last. There was no telling if he’d see tomorrow, so a proper introduction was only appropriate.

“Yuuka. Try to stay behind us, out of the line of fire. Your spear is a last resort. If Rana and I are slain, redouble the fishermen’s warnings to the villagers, but do not remain in the village to die. The city of Toshi isn’t far north-east; maybe their people, with their science educations, will take an interest in the beast...”

“You’re scaring me,” Rana said. “All this serious talk... it can’t... it really can’t be what is making all that noise in the forest.”

The noises were louder, nearer.

“You’ll believe it when you see it,” Setsu said. “But have your bow ready!”

Rana took an arrow and cocked his bow. He shook, but steadied himself enough to put the arrow in place and draw back, ready to fire, albeit with questionable accuracy. The crossbow did not seem to require so much effort. Both aimed for the forest, waiting for something to come out. Whatever did come out would be shot, no matter what it was, so Rana hoped none of the fishermen came straggling into the village.

The sounds paused for a long time. The muscles in Rana’s upper body, unused if not completely untrained, grew very tired.

Then a long, brown club shot out from between the trees, curling around his waist, puncturing it with spines. He screamed and fired, but did not hit anything, and was pulled off his feet into the forest, where the others could just see the glistening body to which the club belonged. Setsu fired a bolt at it, hitting it between the eyes. It could be heard to recoil, but only briefly; then it fired another club, which Setsu deftly evaded as he loaded another bolt.

The hooked tentacle hit the ground hard where he had stood, and thrashed dangerously, reaching for anyone. Yuuka backed away, holding out his spear in front of him. Setsu fired another bolt into the forest, aiming, as before, for one of the huge eyes. This time he hit it. Now the creature did not recoil: it had a bodily spasm, and thrashed the more violently, its club swinging toward Yuuka, who stopped it with the shaft of his spear, which it curled around, the hooks at its end just missing his face. It pulled the spear away into the forest.

Yuuka cried in alarm, now weaponless—not that it made much difference in the end. But Setsu fired another bolt, evoking another violent contraction, this one seeming to amplify Rana’s whimpering sobs which went on as he bled copiously in the creature’s clutches. It began to retreat, crawling backwards on its arms through the path it had made of felled trees.

“We can’t let it return to the water,” Setsu said, loading another bolt. “I’m going into the forest after it—I have to hurry. The danger to the village is over for another hundred years now, but if I kill it... it’ll never rise again.” And he would look criminally suspect if he returned to the Hall without Rana. “Wait for me here, for a few minutes. No longer.” He moved beyond the sparse fern-trees of the forest’s border.

Yuuka waited, and listened. And he thought to himself, in a few minutes, would he be mourning the death of his new friend?

 

Chapter II

 

Setsu rushed through the thick. The trees which had not been felled seemed to discourage the beast’s firing of its tentacles, the same way they should discourage the firing of a crossbow into them. Setsu fired out from their cover, when he felt sure he would hit, and moved, knowing it unwise to remain in one place, even if the creature was too much in a hurry to get away to attack him again. Another bolt had hit its mantle somewhere, though must not have done any damage.

It was armoured, he thought. His only hope were those immense eyes, which still he aimed for when he stopped every now and again to fire. It moved fast on land for something so huge from the sea.

Rana had died from his wounds, he knew. The blood was copious—the beast left a trail of it, and not from its own wounds. His body, and the beast’s, Setsu decided, would not go to waste. It had turned from where the bolts came, so that Setsu had no choice but to leave cover and run out ahead of it.

The beast merely proceeded in its path, doubtless hoping to trample him if it had noticed him at all. But he ran, leapt, ran, and turned, and fired another bolt into its previously damaged eye.

It thrashed angrily as he loaded another bolt, fired, hitting his target again. Its limbs went flaccid as it died.

He approached it, filled its head with three more bolts when it no longer presented a moving target, just to be sure. Then he found Rana pinched between two of its arms. He brought his ear close to his mouth, waiting for a breath, a sign of life.

There was a weak exhalation. So he had not died—but had he long to live? Setsu would bring healers, in case there were a chance.

 

#

 

Sitting in the dirt on the edge of the village, Yuuka still waited. Perhaps it had been longer than a few minutes—he could not tell. The sun was beginning to set. Tears ran over his cheeks. He was fighting the urge to sob, when he heard footsteps from the forest.

Setsu hurried out from the trees. “The creature is slain,” he said, “but Rana is nearly dead. Let us get healers, first of all. No need to try and tell our story again—I’ll give them money.”

“I’m glad... you’re alive,” Yuuka said. “If it please you, I’ll thank you with my body later.” He could not help himself. His kind were known by others for their offensive amorousness.

“After a day like this, I think it shall please me, Yuuka. But now, we must act fast.”

So they entered the populated area of the village, and found the Healers’ Hall, which was close to, and less than half the size of, that of the Elders. Setsu handed out many coins—a dead currency outside of some small villages—and told of a grievous bloody wound they must tend in the forest. Three healers accompanied them back, with all manner of accessories as pertained to their profession. Yuuka had to carry some things so they’d not be too much weighed down.

They found Rana where they’d left him, pinched in the arms of the squid-beast.

“W-what is this?!” demanded one of the healers.

“Haven’t you heard the myths of the Great Crawler?” Setsu said. “Those were true, from what I understand, for here it lies, risen for the last time. Let’s not think much about it—try to save this nyanma’s life, if there is any left to save!”

“Is it dead?”

“I killed it!”

Reluctantly the healers stooped over Rana, lifting the beast’s arms out of the way, examining him. “He lives, barely,” said one. “We will treat and bandage his wounds, and try to restore some fluids. That is all we can do. It might be too late, but we’ll see...” They had already set to work. “Meantime, you need to go back to the Healers’ Hall, tell them we need a litter and bring it. We can do more for him back in the village.”

Setsu was already on his way.

 

#

 

By the time Setsu had returned with the stretcher, they had already cleaned and dressed Rana’s round, and forced some concoctions down his throat. He didn’t look any better, but neither worse. The trip back to the Healers’ Hall was quick.

There they laid him on a bed, and dismissed Setsu and Yuuka. “You’re both Elders, right?” one had said. “Then you’ll know whether this one recovers. We will do our best.”

Outside, Yuuka looked up at Setsu. He was looking back, and said: “I haven’t eaten all day. Let’s see how the squid tastes, if scavengers and fishermen haven’t got to it already.”

Yuuka nodded, and followed, hoping for something more than a feast as he watched Setsu’s backside, smooth round buttocks cleaved by the bottom of his extravagant blue maillot, which had a hole above for his tail. Dusk was upon them, but nyanma could see in the dark.

The squid-beast appeared to be untouched by wild animals. Then it was likely, Yuuka thought, that it had a bad taste. But they would try it anyway. At length, they dragged it out into the open together.

Setsu wiped dirt from one of its arms and bit into it easily, tore a piece off and swallowed. “It’s not at all pleasant,” he said. It had a muddy, ammoniac taste unlike that of any raw squid he’d ever eaten. “But it goes down easy. Want to try?” He took another bite.

Yuuka figured he might as well. It could move things along. And in the end, they each devoured a whole arm—an overindulgence, especially in something so bitter. But certainly, it cured their hunger.

“Ah, I could vomit,” Yuuka said.

“You shouldn’t have tried to eat as much as I did!”

“No... I had to. This thing ate my lover.”

Setsu supposed it did make sense, as a kind of vengeance. “Your lover... it can’t be too soon to ask, since you already proposed it yourself: do you want to make love with me?”

“I would love to, but... can I be on top?” Yuuka had a persistent, itchy erection. It had been a while since he’d had release.

“That’s the way I’d have you. Look.” Setsu pulled aside the front of his maillot, revealing a half-erect penis even smaller than Yuuka’s. “Height isn’t everything. I’ve... noticed your horn.”

“Kayane’s was bigger... but I won’t mention him again, for a while at least.” Yuuka tackled Setsu, knocking him back against the soft, cold mantle of the dead squid. Then, lifting one of the Elder’s legs, he pulled aside the bottom of the maillot, so as to uncover his anus.

“You’re going to enter dry?”

“We’re sweaty—it should work.” Yuuka hiked up the front of his skirt, letting his cock swing free, and brought its tip to kiss Setsu’s hot, yielding sphincter. Setsu moaned at the touch, and was still, receptive.

Setsu braced himself as it pushed inside him somewhat too easily, expanding him. Yuuka grabbed onto his hip with one hand, and his half-erection twitched; he leaned his face forward, catching Yuuka’s lips in his, parting them with his tongue. They kissed deeply as they fucked.

His arsehole sucked Yuuka hard when he drew back, and offered a pleasant, weak resistance when he thrust forth again, and again. Already he approached climax, and moaned into Setsu’s throat as his tail lashed the air behind him, behind each movement of his hips. He tried to hold back, to slow himself, but he only came nearer the edge.

Throwing his arms around Yuuka and pulling away from their kiss, Setsu cried. Spend drivelled from his cock, even though it had only got softer as Yuuka pushed to and fro inside him; he had come. And Yuuka’s neck crossed his as the thrusts grew more powerful, and spend seeped out around each brief withdrawal.

Setsu sighed. “We finished... almost the same time...”

Yuuka slipped his spent cock out, breathing heavily. After a moment he asked, “Was it good?”

“It was the best. I hope to do it with you regularly.”

At Yuuka’s sudden insistence, they kissed again. He let Setsu’s thigh down. When their lips came apart Yuuka said, “I’m very tired. What about you?”

“Tired enough to sleep beside you. But I live at the Elders’ Hall, and I don’t know if it’s a good idea for me to show up there till we’ve some news on Rana. You have somewhere to sleep?”

In fact Yuuka had a small flat in Toshi, the closest city, where he lived alone. He had planned to move Kayane in with him... but his plan had changed perforce. “I do have somewhere. But we have to go by train—it’s in the city.”

“Let’s go. There’s nothing for me to do here till tomorrow.”

So they left behind the felled and partially devoured squid-beast, waited at the small station for the night service Yuuka took when he was not spending the night with Kayane, and left behind the village.

 

Chapter III

 

Yuuka wanted to fuck again when they got to the housing estate where he lived in a big concrete slab many times more imposing than the Elders’ Hall. And they did, in his bed, in his flat, before sleep.

He woke to the alarm-bell of his clock. Setsu did more slowly by the time he turned it off. The commute to the latex plantations, on the outskirts of the village, was not long hence.

And Setsu had the daily parliament. Though there was generally no necessity of attending, today’s circumstances were exceptional. They would expect him there whether or not Rana was alive to show. He had to find out, first.

So they broke fast and took the morning service to the latex plantation together, where they said their farewells.

“Please,” Yuuka said, “come to my place any time. If things get bad in the village... you can live with me.”

And it was something Setsu intended to do anyway.

Alone, he got back to the village and made straight for the Healers’ Hall. One of the Healers he’d paid yesterday, when he enquired on Rana’s condition, informed him coldly that Rana had died.

It gave him a pang, though he did not much care for Rana personally. Death to Nyanma, the way one’s body would fail and mind consequently dissolve into nothing, was invariably horrifying. Over the race’s millennia of existence, it had never worked the end of life into its culture with trappings like religion, which for Nyanma never had anything to do with the end of anything—the popular ones, at least.

And now he quivered at the prospect of the other Elders’ reactions. At least one of them had been Rana’s lover. How would the Hall receive Setsu now, when he had led Rana to his death? Not well, he believed, bracing himself, and sitting down on a tree blown down by some past storm in a small glade near a tranquil stream, dreading what he was going to have to do, and face their accusatory gazes... He finally resolved and went into the building. As expected, they were waiting for him. As expected, they looked very dismissive.

One of them cleared his throat, Yumeki, the pudgy one.

“Well, we heard of your experiences.”

“Yes,” another immediately interjected, Rei, whose hair was a sandy-white, “we really heard about that total disaster. How could you be so rash? Foolish! Letting you leave was a mistake.”

They could not begin to fathom the destruction that could have come to the village had he not gone, Setsu thought. But it was a mistake to let Rana accompany him. Rana was not a price that had been paid for the village’s safety—he was a casualty of Setsu’s lack of foresight. “Rana is dead,” he said, though he expected they’d already know.

“And we’re holding your responsible,” Rei said. “You’ll regret your haphazard actions, throwing yourself into harm’s way as you did—were it not for those healer half-brains’ assurances we’d have thought that thing you killed was just a figment of your imagination. Anyhow, it’s the height of irresponsibility! We cannot have such a fool in the Hall of the Elders.”

“Maybe if you hadn’t been so quick to believe the tale of that outsider,” Yumeki moaned, “Rana would still be with us.”

“But the thing had to be stopped!” Setsu exclaimed. He’d also expected this from the council, but it was always upsetting to have those in power confirm their own stupidity.

“Be that as it may, is it a reason to throw yourselves as sacrifices into its maw?” Rei furrowed his brow. “We’ve all come to a decision that you, Setsu, are to be stripped of your Elder status for at least two years’ time.”

Setsu wanted to object, but the nods of the others angered him beyond reason; he felt sick and found himself unable to talk, so he rushed out through the large doors.

In the market cooked pieces of the beast were still being sold. It seemed everyone had got a share. Setsu had smelled enough of it. He went to the outskirts to be away.

Though he found himself walking toward the coast, he didn’t expect to smell more squid. Eventually he was accosted by a small blue-haired, brown-eared youth, who Setsu guessed by his dress was a fisherman. The youth was scared.

“Something’s wrong with the fish,” he told Setsu. “For hours now all the best fishing spots have been deserted, just like that place...”

Just like the barren zone, where the beast had always surfaced. What could it mean? “That is worrisome.” Setsu tried to appear calm, even as he broke out in a nervous sweat. “Did you try moving farther down the coast, away from the barren zone?”

“Oh, but we did! There’s nothing for miles! I mean, someone had some luck quite far north, but the walking distance from there to the village is impractical. I heard about the beast that came out of the barren zone. You’re an elder, right? Do you think there could be more of them on the way?...”

His fears were the same. “I don’t know. I really... you and the other fishermen still in this area should go home for the day, just to be safe till we find what’s diverting the fish.”

“Well, being unproductive at home sounds a lot better than being unproductive on the job, which seems to be my destiny so far this day. I will try to bring others back to the village with me. You’d better give news when this is all sorted—ah, forgive my tone, you are an elder!” He bowed deeply and ran back to the fishery before Setsu could think anything of it.

Before he could tell him that he was an elder no longer.

And what could an average villager do in the event of the catastrophe that may very well be about to unfold?

 

#

 

When his five-hour shift had ended the first thing Yuuka thought to do was call Setsu on his portable ringer. After a few seconds he answered: “Yuuka?”

“Were you expecting a call from anyone else? My shift is over and I wanted to meet you again...”

“I’d love to come to your place.” His voice was tinged with regret. “But I have to stay, for a little while—listen, I think more of those squid-beasts are about to surface—”

“And that’s reason to stay?!”

“No, but maybe I’m wrong. I’m watching... I don’t know what to do, in case of real danger. If I alert people it’ll cause a panic, and if I don’t...”

“If you’re not coming here I’m going there.”

“Please, no! Stay away from this village! I don’t intend to die here myself. I’ve been hesitating stupidly, despite knowing what I must do, whether or not it works—do not come here: I will make some arrangements and ring you when I’m done. Then I’ll go to your place, and I’ll stay for as long as you’ll have me. Promise.”

“I’ll be waiting for you.” Yuuka ended the call, and started home.

 

#

 

He hadn’t wanted to do this, but Yuuka’s rashness left him no choice. He had to beseech the elders, and so soon after he had dismissed himself from their unbearable presences! He still found it hard to believe they had removed him from his seat with such decisive authority, when in all the usual matters pertaining to running a village they were more or less incompetent.

Setsu smiled grimly. Whatever happened, Yuuka would be safe, and that was what mattered to him now.

So he swam through the odours of the market, where squid still prevailed, albeit rather less strongly than before, and came again to the hall of the elders, swallowing any sense of pride he had left.

Things, it seemed, had returned to normal: only the fat one sat at the table, asleep in his comfortable chair. Setsu rapped three times on the wood to wake him.

“You,” he drooled, “do not belong here any more.”

“I’m aware of that. You don’t see me sitting, do you? I come as an average villager to petition the council on a grave matter.”

“What is it this time, more squids?”

Setsu inhaled deeply. “That is it exactly. The fishermen and I have reason to believe more of those monstrous land-crawling squids are about to surface. I will tell you the reasoning when the others have been gathered to hear me.”

So he pressed a button that sounded the horn, calling the others to parliament, wherever they may be (so long as they be within the walls of the hall). Only Rei arrived, Rana’s lover apparently taking a leave of absence.

“What do you want?” Rei demanded, still standing. “Out with it.”

“I want you to arm all able-bodied villagers. The fishermen inform me that the fish have all moved far away, scared by something which is coming from the ultimate depths. We all suspect it is more Great Crawlers.”

Rei couldn’t hide his impatience with Setsu. “More of those giant squid-monsters? What for? You think they’re seeking vengeance for the one you killed? Well then you deal with it—there’s no reason for anyone else to go along, and certainly no reason to arm the villagers!”

If you don’t want the beasts to reach you, Setsu thought, there’s plenty of reason. Being in this room now tired him, but he had to try. “I implore you, arm them, just in case more of those things come up on land and head for the village. If you do not, the blood of the people, I say, is on your hands, not mine. I did all I could. Now I take my leave. I’m moving to the city. Good bye.”

Their gazes burned his back, but he exited the place with sure steps. He must’ve looked cool, he thought, but he felt an immense sense of guilt, and when he’d come well out of the building, he rang the only thing, the only person who could still make him feel good.

 

Chapter IV

 

Who did he think he was? Rana’s death, and Michi’s absence, were both his fault. So the beast had been real—that didn’t mean there were more of the same. The one he had taken care of himself, and it had made the villagers somewhat happy, what with all the food. What had he said? The fish are gone? He would have to look into that, see what the fisherman had to say for themselves.

But that would be tomorrow. Work was over for today. Rei started to leave the room when he was accosted by some whine from Yumeki.

“What if the danger is real?”

“Don’t give Setsu’s ramblings any thought. That would be... almost impossible.”

“But why can’t we arm a militia, just in case? At least one of the things was real.”

Rei turned to the fool. “We can’t just go handing out our armoury to the plain folk. Beasts or no, do you think they’d just give up the weaponry? No, they’d turn against us, and hand the village over to the city. That can’t be allowed to happen. Now stop worrying and go back to sleep.”

Concern was in Yumeki’s eyes, but not for long. “I think I need to eat before I can sleep again.”

“You do that. As for me, I’m leaving. My work is done for the day. Do not call me in again.”

Rei left as Yumeki buzzed in more food, and for the rest of the day the elders did no work, their parliament done, their appetites for relaxation and feasts appeased. They would know less work in the future than they thought.

 

#

 

He opened the door for Setsu, who had knocked despite it being unlocked. Their following embrace was so immediate it was impossible to tell who had initiated it.

“I’m glad you didn’t stay there,” Yuuka murmured.

“I just hope I was wrong about everything.”

Yuuka pulled away. “I’ll make you forget about that village, until tomorrow at least. Just let me change my clothes—”

“I’m not going back tomorrow. Didn’t I tell you? I’m living with you from now on. Maybe I forgot to mention it, but I was kicked off the council for letting Rana die.”

“Oh, I’m sorry...”

“About Rana dying, or my getting kicked off the council? It doesn’t matter—I don’t blame myself for that death, and I can’t blame myself for the deaths that may or may not be about to follow. You said you were going to make me forget.”

“Yes! I’ll be a minute.” Yuuka turned and walked off to the bedroom, closing the door, leaving Setsu clueless as to why, but not overly curious. Not long after Yuuka came out.

He wore a small black latex dress, with a pleated skirt so short it barely could have covered his buttocks; his tail rose out a hole above the pleats. The dress had long sleeves with flared ends, and a low collar that exposed Yuuka’s nipples. Setsu bulged at the crotch of his maillot.

“What do you think?”

“Well,” said Setsu, “I never thought you’d be in possession of such arousing vestments.”

“You’ve only seen me in my work-dress till now. This is the sort of thing my job on the plantation produces, but I wouldn’t dare wear it to work. It’s one of the wonders of city fashion.” As he spoke, he neared Setsu; then he got on his knees and pulled aside the front of the maillot to let Setsu’s cock spill out. Tail waving torridly, Yuuka set to work with his mouth upon the organ.

When Setsu approached climax, Yuuka spat him out, and stood up. “I want to try something,” he murmured, “before you finish. Give me a moment.” He walked off again, to his kitchen, and opened a cupboard, taking out a big glass bottle of oil. Setsu watched as he poured some in his hand and massaged it into his lean but soft thighs, which the skirt did not cover. When his skin there glistened, he stroked his cock too. “Don’t you want to thrust it between my legs?” he said, coming back.

It wasn’t something Setsu had thought of before, but the proposal made his horn twitch. “How can I say no, when you’ve prepared them so well for me? Get on the bed—our height-difference makes this hard to do standing.”

Only too ready, Yuuka went into the bedroom, leaving the door open for Setsu to follow this time. He sat on the foot of the bed and lay back, his erection swaying as the pleats of his skirt flew up. Setsu bent over, and took his legs by the shins, pushing his calves up in the air, holding them together. That way, there was hardly any gap between Yuuka’s slippery thighs as Setsu drove his cock in.

The sensation chilled him, and he began to thrust, lowering his angle of attack till he got to the fleshiest part of Yuuka’s thighs, and there he settled, slipping to and fro. He licked the calves he held, tasting vegetable oil that had run down to them earlier, regretting it covered the taste of Yuuka’s skin.

“That feels great,” Yuuka gasped. The feeling of Setsu’s hard organ moving, pressed between his thighs as his legs were up in the air exhilarated him more than he thought it would. As Setsu fucked, Yuuka let his legs be pushed farther toward his chest. Soon Setsu was almost on top of him, and Yuuka could see his cock-head poking between his thighs. “Ah, like this is good. Shoot it through my thighs onto my chest!”

After a few more vigorous thrusts Setsu came, and Yuuka laughed as the semen spurted through his thighs and pooled on his chest and neck, warm, cooling quickly. Setsu panted above, retrieved himself and let Yuuka’s legs down, seeing the shorter nyanma’s penis sway rigidly. “I can’t just leave you like that,” he said and got on his knees at the end of the bed, his hands pushing apart Yuuka’s knees so he could catch his erection in his mouth.

His lips engulfed Yuuka, his tongue caressed him; he savoured him and sucked him. And very shortly Yuuka reached a spasmodic climax, feeding Setsu his essence.

Setsu swallowed it immediately. The act made him tingle all over, then relax. That part of Yuuka slipped out of his mouth, and he climbed up on the bed, climbed up over him, to taste his lips and tongue. Their mouths exchanged saliva and traces of Yuuka’s semen, and parted. “I’m really sleepy, after all I’ve been through today,” Setsu said, and rolled to the side, pulling himself farther onto the bed.

“There’s nothing wrong with a little nap. I could use one, too.”

Something was wrong, Setsu thought—the village—probably—unless he was wrong... his mind was too clouded by fatigue to think much of it. He fell asleep.

Turning, Yuuka crawled up beside him, kissed him on the cheek, and lay on his back, closing his eyes, trying to join him.

 

#

 

And when the village slept, water thrashed its coasts as a mountain of a beast came to surface.

It had come, alone, from unfathomable depths, following the scent of its child, whom it knew to be dead. It desired something no animal beneath man should desire—but it was not really beneath man; its intellect, though different, was entirely equal. The beast sought vengeance.

And why shouldn’t it? It did not come by offspring or mates easily down where it lived, and decades if not centuries could be invested in the rearing of the one and the pursuit of the other. The land-dwellers had cost it a lot. It would make them pay. This it felt as it heaved its immense bulk onto land with its many muscular arms thicker and longer than most trees.

It came before long to the fishermen’s hovels. From these little wooden edifices wafted the odours of slaughter and slaughterers on the cool night breeze. It sat on top of one, which gave quickly under its weight. It did not hear the screams of nyanma started awake only to be crushed to death—it possessed no apparatus for hearing. But it smelled their blood as it swelled at a fine pace to overpower the dried scent of fish blood. It wanted to smell more.

So it crushed another hovel the same way. The little men with their pointed ears and enticing tails began to step out of neighbouring places, gawking. It snatched one by the waist with a tentacle and used an arm to bring him up to its beak; it saw the man’s grotesquely widened eyes as he bled to death from where the hooks of its tentacle had punctured his soft body. It savoured the smells of its fear, and the excrement that followed, and stripped the horrified prey’s skeleton with its beak.

It was not much meat, but it was good meat, and it whetted the beast’s appetite for more. The men were fleeing, but they could not outrun its reach if it wanted their flesh. Two more times it caught one with a tentacle, and enjoyed the snack. Where were they running? it wondered, and went the same way. It became excited as their scent strengthened.

They hid in taller structures, but none as tall as the vengeful hunter; stronger structures, but none able to withstand a well-placed swipe of its arm. Until the birds came it ate, gluttonously. It shied away from flying things, which it remembered liked to bite and peck its eyes. By the time of that intrusion, it felt its wants were satisfied.

It would find more mates, make more offspring; it had a lot of time for it. It had millennia; but despite this, it grew weary of vengeance, and began to see it as a waste of energy, especially as the tiny morsels became harder to find, and the flying things threatened to sting. So it returned to its home at the bottom of the sea to begin a new cycle of life.

The cycle of Kokkori had ended.


End file.
